The study was concerned with the range of public and private provision of secondary education and how it is configured in terms of key dimensions of participation, staffing, curriculum, management and costs. It sought to explore how private schools have been developing to meet rapidly growing demand for secondary education of different types in…

This paper focuses on approaches by non-government organisations (NGOs) to reach primary school-aged children excluded from access to the conventional state education system. It highlights recent shifts in international literature and agency priorities from the portrayal of NGO provision as a (non-formal) "alternative" to (formal) state schooling,…

Non-formal education (NFE) is now considered as playing a critical role in the achievement of the objective of Education for All, by reaching the learning needs of youth and adults who do not have access to formal education, increasing their employment opportunities and therefore contributing to poverty alleviation. Yet there is still insufficient…

Through an analysis of quantitative and qualitative data on school funding in South Africa, this paper aims to analyse the user fee policy option in public schooling in South Africa. Debate is ongoing about the role of private input into public schooling and whether this practice affects access (and the constitutional right) to basic education,…

Public financing of education in the developing world context combines public and private funds, and the utilisation of fees is seen as a way of complementing state resources. In South Africa the new government in 1994 permitted schools to charge fees, a policy that has provoked much controversy. While different aspects of this policy have been…

Growing private-sector participation in basic education service delivery in many developing countries has led to calls for greater partnership arrangements with the public sector to improve access for poor and disadvantaged groups. In Ghana there is some interest in forging closer public-private partnerships to improve access for children who have…

In addition to the proliferation of private, fee-paying schools in India, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) play an important role in providing educational services, especially in un-served and under-served communities. This paper uses qualitative research to critically examine the nature and potential of NGO provision of primary schooling in…

This article relates key findings from an ethnographic study into the implementation of the Rights-Based Approach in Tanzania. The Rights-Based Approach is a burgeoning approach in international development that emphasises the rights of citizens and the duties of the State to provide services to the poor. By using the theoretical frameworks of…

Sierra Leone, one of the world's poorest countries, experienced a civil war from 1991 to 2002. The government's capacity to provide educational services remains weak, and still over 30% of children in the country are hard to reach and do not have access to primary education. This paper discusses the role of non-governmental organisations (NGOs)…

The 2011 International Pre-Conference of the Commission on International Adult Education (CIAE), American Association for Adult & Continuing (AAACE), was successfully conducted from October 30-November 1, at the Hyatt Regency, Indianapolis, Indiana. This publication presents the papers presented during the proceedings. These are: (1) Adult…

Globalisation is not a new phenomenon but the world has never before been subject to global forces that are characterised by such extensity, intensity, velocity and impact. Modern technology and communications effectively compress human time and space and we regard the world as a smaller place. One outcome of this has been greater contact with the…

Chinese People-Run tertiary education institutions have grown dramatically in recent years. This paper aims to discuss the government deregulation policy and its impact on private tertiary education in China since the 1980s, particularly on south and west China, Gui Zhou province. Three colleges have been selected respectively from economically…

A hypothetical model was formulated to explore factors that influenced academic and clinical achievement for graduate-entry medical students completing their third year of university studies. Nine latent variables were considered including the students' background, previous successes with their undergraduate and postgraduate studies and their…

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) plays a dominant role in enhancing teaching and learning. Similar advances have been made in the use of multimedia in the classroom. These advances are coupled with newer developmental tools and techniques. This paper examines the design and development of a simulation on water conservation. Science…

In asking the provocative question: "What's wrong with ethnography?" Hammersley draws attention to what he sees as the conceptual and methodological confusion arising from two competing strands of practice: "naive realism" and "relativism". As a solution, he offers "subtle realism" to steer a path through and beyond the confusion. This paper…